A literary counter-investigation at the heart of a legal case file: the story of a young woman who refuses to let others write on her behalf.
Alice is seventeen when she files a rape complaint. Far from a process designed to establish the facts, she discovers a labyrinth of appointments, expert assessments, contradictory proceedings, and interminable delays. The adults refuse to take responsibility for a situation that overwhelms them, and no one tells her what is being said behind closed doors.
Working from the hundreds of pages of her own case file, Alice sets out to reconstruct what really happened during the proceedings. She tries to expose the mechanisms that alter, displace, or discredit the words of those who speak out.
Blending court records, memories, and literary reconstruction, Et les oiseaux restent à terre follows a young woman who, faced with the narratives produced about her, refuses to let others decide for her.
A powerful text on the blind spots of our institutions, the erasure of voices, and the reclaiming of oneself.
